Though protozoan grazing of bacteria is documented in sediments, its ability to regulate bacterial abundance is unknown. If protozoan grazing does limit abundance, as in the water column, then spatial refugia, including space around grain contacts and within topographic pits, should harbor disproportionately high numbers of bacteria. Geometric arguments show that in typical sediments there is sufficient protective space, inaccessible to average-sized grazers, to house all bacteria. To test this idea we embedded intact sediment cores from intertidal and subtidal sands and used SEM and epifluorescence microscopy of thick sections to determine bacterial positions on and among grains in their native geometry. Results have indicated thus far that bacterial abundance is not biased towards spatially protected regions. Our results add additional support to the idea that bacterial abundance in sediments is not depressed by protozoan grazing.